New cars are outrageously expensive. This fall, several estimates put the “average” new car costs at a record-high $50,000, which is understandably out of the reach of many American buyers. And one key policy change for electric vehicles in particular is helping to drag down the entire field.
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On today’s docket: Hyundai’s head of software research steps down as the Korean giant lags in autonomous vehicle technology, and General Motors’ new chief product officer says things will be different now. Let’s dig in.
25%: Car Sales Sink As Americans Target ‘Affordability’
2026 Ford Mustang Mach-E California Special
Photo by: Ford
This spike in car prices is nothing new, unfortunately. They’ve been on the rise for years but significantly increased during and after the pandemic. But for the past two years or so, EVs represented a bright spot in the affordability landscape. Aggressive lease deals, the $7,500 tax credit and other incentives often made going electric the cheapest and best way to get a decent new car.
When all of that went away, I wondered if they’d take the entire new-car market down with them. And November sales data show this to be happening, according to Automotive News:
Light-vehicle deliveries fell 6.3% in November from the same month last year, when there was one additional selling day, GlobalData said in a preliminary report. On a selling day-adjusted basis, sales dropped 2.6 percent.
Sales of most EVs declined significantly, continuing a recent trend. While the overall market fell for the second consecutive month, some brands such as Toyota and Kia posted modest gains driven by strong demand for hybrids and lower-priced models.
“People are looking for affordability right now,” Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, told Automotive News. “We know there’s higher prices, interest rates are still high from a historical perspective, and that is kind of coming to roost at this point in the year where people are more deal-oriented.
It is certainly and unfortunately true that without the tax credits, the biggest sales declines are in the EV segment. But it’s key to know that it’s not just EVs that are sliding: people everywhere are saying no to high prices, especially with big trucks and SUVs. How else do you explain this, from Ford?
Overall, the automaker’s utility vehicle sales slid 4.9 percent while truck sales were flat. Sales of entry-level trims on the Maverick, Ranger, Bronco Sport and Explorer all surged by double digits.
Sales slid 15 percent at Honda Motor Co., with volume down 17 percent at the Honda division and 1.4 percent at Acura.
The company blamed global semiconductor shortages, mostly at Nexperia, which have reduced output and inventories. The company said it ended November with 145,634 Honda-branded models in stock, down from 169,063 at the end of October and 173,704 a year earlier.
Not everyone who scored a sub-$200 monthly lease on a Honda Prologue was passionate about Honda’s road to electrification (with General Motors’ help, of course). Many of them just wanted a great deal. And those deals helped to prove to those buyers—who may not have considered this otherwise—that it is possible to break up with gasoline.
Now, the American car market is without EV incentives, and it also faces record-high prices and broader economic uncertainty. On the plus side, the holiday deals are here, but what happens after that?
50%: Hyundai’s Advanced Vehicle Chief Resigns, Laments Slow Growth In Autonomous Tech
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT
Photo by: Patrick George
The EVs from the Hyundai Motor Group like the Ioniq 5, Kia EV9 and so on tend to be some of my go-to recommendations for anyone looking to go electric. The Korean automaker’s offerings generally have excellent range, class-leading fast charging and tons of style.
But as advanced as they are, Hyundai’s cars tend to lag behind rivals in advanced software—and especially in autonomous driving technologies. An Ioniq 5 is a great car, but forget hands-free highway driving as you’d get from GM’s Super Cruise.
Now, Song Chang-hyeon, head of Hyundai Motor Group’s Advanced Vehicle Platform division and chief of the group’s software research arm 42dot, is apparently falling on his sword and leaving the company. Here’s more from Korea’s Yonhap News Agency:
Song appears to be taking responsibility for the group’s limited progress in autonomous driving technologies, as Hyundai Motor Group has been viewed as falling short of expectations compared with rivals despite significant investment in the AVP division.
“We have been preparing for the future automobile market, where only software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and autonomous driving technologies will remain after global automakers have spent tens of trillions of won only to fall short,” Song said in the message.
Hyundai Motor Group appears to be lagging behind rivals, including Tesla Inc., which has been strengthening its presence in South Korea by adopting its supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. Other global carmakers, such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have already incorporated Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities into their production models.
At the very least, Hyundai continues to partner with several autonomous taxi firms in the U.S. and beyond, including Waymo, Motional and Avride. And the Korean automaker seems to have some slick next-generation software due out next year.
For now, the company is definitely playing catch-up on driverless technology—not just with Tesla but also GM, Ford, Rivian and any number of Chinese players.
75%: Can GM’s Sterling Anderson Deliver A Long-Promised Tech Revolution?
GM Escalade IQ Lidar
Photo by: General Motors
Over the years, GM has poached several big names from Silicon Valley tech companies and startups like Tesla as it seeks to position itself as a leader in autonomy, batteries, software and innovation. But it’s not always great at keeping those folks around. At least two executives I chatted with at the GM Forward tech event in New York City in October have since moved on from the company.
But GM says that its secret weapon is Sterling Anderson, the roboticist, former Tesla executive and co-founder of the autonomous trucking firm Aurora Innovation. Anderson is now GM’s Chief Product Officer, and as CNBC puts it, “he oversees the company’s vast product portfolio—from the vehicles themselves to the software powering them.” And at least some recent tech departures at GM seem tied to his reorganization efforts. From CNBC:
He has consolidated power to oversee “the end-to-end product lifecycle” of GM vehicles, including manufacturing engineering, battery, software and services product management, and engineering teams, according to GM.
“My priority is to accelerate the pace of innovation. One of the ways we do that is with this disaggregation of, or this abstraction of, software from hardware,” he told CNBC during an Oct. 22 technology event in New York. “That’s the point of the role, I think, is it brings together all of these pieces into a unified approach to how we do product going forward.”
Since then, the company’s acclaimed heads of software and artificial intelligence have unexpectedly exited the company after relatively short tenures. Their main responsibilities related to vehicles now fall under Anderson.
GM attributed the abrupt departures of Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, and Barak Turovsky, head of AI, to restructuring efforts.
Another software executive, Baris Cetinok, reportedly left to pursue another opportunity. But as CNBC points out, several other high-profile poaches from Apple and Google and others haven’t lasted long at GM—often for the same reasons that most “legacy” automakers struggle to become nimble, software- and tech-focused operations:
″[Traditional U.S. automakers] have very much had a significant struggle with understanding software and electronics technology, and that has caused them to have a parade of experts quote ‘coming in to help,’” said Peter Abowd, an engineer turned automotive and technology consultant.
“It’s just kind of setting the person up for a bit of failure,” Abowd said. “In a couple years, you can’t culturally shift an organization … so the best thing to do is to part ways.”
Anderson is an incredibly smart guy, but he’s got his work cut out for him. I do think GM’s made big strides in recent years on both autonomy and software efforts (if you can live without Apple CarPlay, of course). But creating a true software ecosystem that can power a connected, increasingly automated future for its giant fleet is a very tall order.
100%: What’s The Most You’d Pay For A New Car?
Nissan Leaf Chevy Equinox EV Edmunds
Photo by: Edmunds Cars/YouTube
This is a personal question that’s unique to everyone. But I feel like for most Americans, the fact that the “average” new car is now about $50,000 doesn’t make that pill go down more easily. What’s the most you would ever pay at the new-car lot? I’ve always bought used (or leased, with my Kia EV6) and if car prices keep going the way they are, my current fleet is going to stick around for a while.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
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